Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the October 12, 2016 edition of Tidbits
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/tidbits101216.htm       
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
What's sad is to witness what Syria has become because nobody will give up.

And "because they're nonstate actors, it's hard for us to get the satisfaction of [Gen.] MacArthur and the [Japanese] Emperor [Hirohito] meeting and the war officially being over," Obama observed, referencing the end of World War II.
President Barack Obama when asked if the USA of the future will be perpetually engaged in war.
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-on-americans-being-resigned-to-live-in-a-perpetual-war-2016-7

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton

If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau

Political Correctness on Campuses
Harvard is just one of the prestigious institutions where such things have happened -- and where preemptive surrender to mob rule has been justified by a dean saying that it was too costly to provide security for many outside speakers who would set off campus turmoil.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/10/04/the-academic-curtain-n2227794?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

The Rise of Political Fact Checking ---
http://www.issuelab.org/resources/15318/15318.pdf
Jensen Comment
Fact checkers are not always fair. Sometimes a "fact" was not really spoken as a "fact" in the context of the comment. Sometimes, the context explains that this is just a guess, a hunch, an non-researched opinion, etc. Also the fact checkers sometimes claim facts that are subject to dispute ---
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/04/10/reagan-biographer-presidential-historian-fact-checks-wapos-fact-checker/

 Snopes is probably the most reliable fact checking service. I use this service every day. But over the years my opinion is that Snopes leans to the left much more than the right in cherry picking what political claims it validates. I doubt that Snopes would have made the following correction provided by the WSJ.
The WSJ reports Donald Trump was right when he pushed back on debate moderator Lester Holt over “stop and frisk” policing. But the story deserves a more complete explanation, not least because the media are distorting the record ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/fact-checking-lester-holt-1475016937?mod=djemMER 

Federal law makes it illegal to publish an unauthorized tax return:(but the maximum fine is $5,000 in peanuts with a possible five years in prison)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/02/the-new-york-times-risked-legal-trouble-to-publish-donald-trumps-tax-return/
Jensen Comment
Most states that have state income taxes directly ask for Federal tax return information on the state tax returns. I doubt that a newspaper can avoid Federal law by having the Federal tax information laundered in a state tax return. However, the probability that this particular Justice Department during the 2016 election campaigns would prosecute the New York Times is literally zero.

The Commission on Presidential Debates reported on Friday that there were in fact issues with Donald Trump’s microphone at the Debate Monday evening at Hofstra university in New York ---
http://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2016/09/30/presidential-debates-admits-trumps-mic-was-messed-up/

Political Correctness Still Dominates University Filters for Speakers
University of New Haven Disinvites Sheriff David Clarke From Speaking ---
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/10/06/university-of-new-haven-disinvites-sheriff-david-clarke-from-speaking-n2228900?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
It's just not politically correct to let a police chief speak on a college campus in the USA even if he is African American

Political Correctness on Campuses
Harvard is just one of the prestigious institutions where such things have happened -- and where preemptive surrender to mob rule has been justified by a dean saying that it was too costly to provide security for many outside speakers who would set off campus turmoil.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/10/04/the-academic-curtain-n2227794?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Community Outraged as Walmart Refuses to Make 'Blue Lives Matter' Cake for Retiring Cop ---
https://www.yahoo.com/news/community-outraged-walmart-refuses-blue-215900946.html

The major donors who supported the GOP establishment’s favored candidates during the primaries are now standing on the sidelines or have switched sides to support Hillary Clinton, says a survey by the Los Angeles Times. Ninety-five percent of GOP primary donors are “sitting out” the general election, the newspaper found ---
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/09/30/95-gop-primary-donors-either-stopped-giving-trump-donated-hillary/

I an not a Marxist.
Karl Marx
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/karl-marx-yesterday-and-today
Maybe this is why only 11 people showed up for his funeral.

The Amish rarely endorse a political candidate. I was, therefore, surprising this year when they endorsed Donald Trump ---
http://threepercenternation.com/2016/10/amish-leaders-make-the-first-ever-presidential-endorsement-shocks-millions/

California’s Bad Example for Criminal-Justice Reformers ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-bad-example-for-criminal-justice-reformers-1475879844?mod=djemMER

Photographs:  Destination dreamland: Haunting images from Japan’s abandoned ‘Disneyland’ theme park ---
https://www.yahoo.com/news/destination-dreamland-haunting-images-from-1524981008752694.html
Jensen Comment
What is odd is that for Japanese tourists in the USA the two major Disney parks seem to be a top priority.
One possible answer to the lower popularity of a Disney park in Japan relative to the USA is that Disney parks in the USA are popular with a high proportion of international tourists from virtually all nations on earth. Japan just does not have the same appeal for a high number of international tourists to support such a theme park in Japan. Also Japan itself only has 127 million people compared to the USA population of 324 million potential visitors to a Disney theme park.

Among the political correctness issues that cannot be debated on campus are Black Lives Matter and Climate Change --- the debates will be shut down by protesters
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/29212/
Of course there are many other such issues that protesters will shut down ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness

Dozens of the raptors (bald eagles) crash White Oak Farms each winter to dine on its fields of pasture-raised poultry. With little recourse, the farmers are racing to adapt ---
http://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2016/an-organic-chicken-farm-georgia-has-become-endless
Jensen Comment
Meanwhile the USA government gave electric power windmill operators free licenses to kill thousands of eagles and millions of other birds
But this problem will soon be over. Soon there won't be any more bald eagles in the wild to kill in the USA.

The last seven years may have diluted that patriotic sentiment. Yet, square our national veneration of the bald eagle with a federal rule to allow the rotor blades of wind turbines to butcher 4,200 bald eagles per year for thirty years—four times the previous limit. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), an agency legally bound to protect wildlife and with no jurisdiction over energy, stated that the rule’s purpose was to help spur more renewable (wind power) installations.
http://townhall.com/columnists/kathleenhartnettwhite/2016/05/20/bald-eagles-gone-with-the-wind-n2165709?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

At the vice presidential debate last night, the Republican nominee, Mike Pence, made sure to thank the hosts at Norwood University. One problem: The institution is named Longwood University.
Jensen Comment
Wasn't it Robert Kennedy who, from the back of a train during whistle stop campaign train, said good morning to the wrong Iowa town?
When he woke up Marilyn Monroe forgot to tell him where they were

Mike Pence Showed Donald Trump How to Debate ---
http://time.com/4519111/vice-presidential-debate-mike-pence-donald-trump/?xid=newsletter-brief

More than 94M Americans (over the age of 15) out of workforce Statistics show that 94 million people in the US older than 15 don't have a job and aren't seeking one. The Labor Department projects that by 2020, the number will top 101 million.)
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/10/06/over-94-million-americans-are-outside-the-labor-force-and-thats-almost-certain-to-rise/
The 2016 labor force in the USA is 160 million ---
http://www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi/laus/us/usadj.htm

Six Border Walls Being Built Around the World ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-border-wall-global-immigration-security-2016-9
Jensen Comment
There's also a wall Mexico intends to build on its southern border and a mall part of a wall the US built on its southern border. The most serious walls built in the world were the Great Wall of China and the Iron Curtain in East Germany (that walled people in rather than out). Walls really aren't very effective unless they're supplemented by guards with guns willing to shoot.

Animated map shows the most dangerous countries in the world for tourists ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-dangerous-countries-world-tourists-terrorism-2016-7

Well, the rifleman’s stalking the sick and the lame
Preacherman seeks the same, who’ll get there first is uncertain
Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks
Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain
False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin
Only a matter of time ’til night comes steppin’ in

Bob Dylan




One of the richest men in the world, a Mexican billionaire, is seeking financial control of The New York Times.
As reported by the NYT in 2015 (note the stock buyback program of the NYT that aids in the process)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/business/carlos-slim-more-than-doubles-his-stake-in-times-company.html?_r=1


Common Claims About Proposition 13 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/10/california-legislative-analysts-officecommon-claims-about-proposition-13.html


Tax Foundation
Here are the ten states with the best and worst 2017 business tax climates
---
http://taxfoundation.org/article/2017-state-business-tax-climate-index
Jensen Comment
No Surprise --- The best tend to be Republican Party states and the worst are the Democratic Party states.
The map is a little confusing since the Republican Party states are shown in the deepest blue color in this map.
Oregon is an exception by being a Democratic Party state with a favorable tax climate.
Florida and Ohio are battleground states where Florida has a favorable tax climate. Ohio has a bad tax climate.
In spite of it's taxing reputation Illinois actually comes out in the middle at Rank 26. However, in terms of budget problems Illinois is a disaster and may well eventually have the worst tax climate.


Who is the 2016 Taxgate Deep Throat?

William Shakespeare reads my three blogs and occasionally sends me messages. For example, on February 12 he complained that his skull was stolen. I didn't pay much attention, because he blamed Tony Blair. In the U.K. Tony Blair gets blamed for everything from crop circles to world wars to grave robbing ---
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/23/shakespeare-stolen-skull-grave-robbing-tale-true

On October 5, 2016 Shakespeare sent me the following message. I might add that only my Grandma Jensen and William Shakespeare call be Bobby.
The message reads as follows:

************************************************

October 5, 2016
Dear Bobby,

'Tis true my Bobby that there's a Taxgate Deep Throat, but you've naively assumed that Deep Throat's a turncoat whistleblower. Truth is that The Donald grows weary of the many slings and arrows aimed at him because of his failure to disclose his tax returns. Upon receiving that plain brown envelope the foolish New York Times mistakenly assumed it had a 2016 Taxgate Deep Throat to rival the WaPo's 1972 Watergate Deep Throat. In truth The Donald himself fooled the Fool to divert the blame from himself to the evil IRS that lets millions of other wealthy naives to not pay a farthing in tax on hundreds of millions of dollars if revenue. Now the feverish media concedes that The Donald was cleverly taking advantage of injustices allowed by a dastardly IRS. Truth is that the Taxgate Deep Throat is none other than The Donald himself --- he fooled a Fool.

Endnote
It's highly unlikely that Donald Trump's accountant named Jack Mitnick, CPA would so willingly verify the that the disclosed partial tax returns were legitimate without his former employer's willingness to do so. To do so without permission is an ethics violation in the CPA profession. Of course it could be possible that Mitnick, now retired and quite elderly, no longer cares about the ethics of his profession.

After the Sexit scandal all of this probably does not matter much ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-leaked-recording-women-audio-billy-bush-2016-10
As Glen Beck said, Donald Trump is now the Anthony Weiner of the Republican Party. Bill Clinton's sex scandal fines and settlements of $1 million are long forgotten.


NY Times:  When It Comes To Tax Avoidance, Donald Trump’s Just A Small Fry ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/10/times-when-it-comes-to-tax-avoidance-donald-trumps-just-a-small-fry.html


The Industry (for-profit education) That Was Crushed By The Obama Administration ---
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/the-industry-that-was-crushed-by-the-obama-administration?utm_term=.xh23WyRlep#.pb909levyp
Jensen Comment
I side with the Department of Education (call it Obama if you want) on this issue. The problem with most for-profit education providers is that they could not compete for tuition payers when traditional universities commenced to offer online degrees. When students use their own money they prefer the prestige of a degree from some university like Indiana University that earned all of its accredited degree programs relative to a less-prestigious for-profit university that that rarely has specialized accreditations like an AACSB accreditation of its undergraduate and graduate business degree programs. What happened is that for-profit universities became almost totally dependent upon the Federal government for revenue such as the tuition of returning veterans who, with shaky prior academic credentials, are nervous about competing with students at Indiana University and other prestigious traditional universities now offering online degrees. To make matters worse for-profit universities commenced questionable marketing promotions such as when the University of Phoenix sends rock bands to military bases to drum up interest in using VA education benefits at the University of Phoenix. When faced with falling profits some for-profit universities commenced to drastically cut costs. Some like ITT became increasingly fraudulent in providing lower and lower quality of training and education. The Department of Education has to make a decision as to whether it would continue to foot the bill for frauds. Not all the remaining for-profit schools are fraudulent. But they somehow have to find a way to compete in a world of more prestigious non-profit programs, especially the online programs. Here are some of the top non-profit online degree programs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#Education

  • US News:  2015 Best Online Bachelor's Programs ---
    http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
    1. Penn State University World Campus
    2. Daytona State College
    3. University of Illinois Chicago
    4. Western Kentucky University
    5. Embry-​Riddle Aeronautical University—​Worldwide
    6. Oregon State University
    7. Colorado State University Global Campus
    8. Arizona State University
    9. Ohio State University --- Columbus
    10. Pace University
    11. Others --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509

    US News:  2015 Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
    http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings

        1. University of Houston
        2 .Florida State University
        3. Northern Illinois University
        4. Penn State University World Campus
        5. Central Michigan University
            Graceland University
            University of Nebraska --- Lincoln

        8. Auburn University
            Ball State University
            George Washington University

      11. Creighton Unversity
            Emporia State University
            Michigan State University
            Others --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings

     US News:  2015 Best Online MBA Programs
    http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba

        1.  Indiana University (Kelly)
            Temple (Fox)
            University of North Carolina --- Chapel Hill

        4.  Arizona State University (Carey)
             University of Florida (Hough)

        6 . University of Texas --- Dallas

        7.  Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
             Penn State University World Campus

        9.  North Carolina State University (Jenkins)

        10. Auburn University

    US News:  2015 Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
    http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education


  • US homeowners get a huge tax break almost nobody knows about, and it's even part of GDP ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/imputed-rent-hidden-tax-break-homeowners-2016-9

    Jensen Comment
    I'm not so sure I agree with taxing imputed rents just like I'm not in favor of eliminating the mortgage interest tax break in the USA (that's not used by all taxpayers, especially retired owners, if they don't have enough other deductions to make it worthwhile to itemize deductions on their tax returns).

    The reason is that there's already a housing shortage in many parts of the USA. Discouraging home ownership relative to renting simply exacerbates the housing shortage problem. In my opinion we should do more to encourage home ownership instead of further discouraging the building and owning of homes.

    Another drawback of renting versus owning is that home owners are more apt to put in more time and money maintaining their homes. Renters usually don't care to put time and money into home maintenance. Government housing is a perfect example of renters not caring. After 20 or so years, government housing often has to be demolished because of the way renters destroyed the housing.

    Renting often leads to vertical housing with ever higher and higher buildings and heavy concentrations of people. Such population concentrations often breed crime that led to an exodus of urban dwellers into sprawling suburbs. Sprawling suburbs have their own problems, but for many suburban living beats living in bee hive concentrations.


    Larry Summers: Four things the Fed should do now to help the economy ---
    http://larrysummers.com/2016/09/30/four-modifications-to-feds-current-posture/


    Hi Zafar,

     

    This is why the fraud commenced on Main Street and not Wall Street. The lenders on Main Street (like Countrywide Finance) loaned the money, often using fraudulent appraisals, with zero risk of default loss to them because they sold those hopeless mortgages upstream to Fannie, Freddie, and many of the Wall Street investment banks like Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns. The original lenders like Countrywide bore zero risk of default on their fraudulent mortgages. 

     

     

    You can read a great illustration of how this worked by reading about how a woman named Marvene in Phoenix got a $100,000 mortgage on her $3,500 shack ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm#Sleaze
    Search on the word "Marvene"

     

     

    The fact that Marvene pocketed this $100,000 (actually she later spent $60,000 of it on a luxury truck) is what led to her mortgage being "poisoned" since there was no hope for the Wall Street Bank that bought the mortgage to collect on its investment in Marvene's mortgage.

     

     

    Sadly the Wall Street banks that bought the poisoned mortgages were not totally innocent dupes. They bundled the poisoned mortgages with good mortgages and sold them as CDO bonds to big investors, e.g.,  investors in places like Saudi Arabia. The problem was that the CDO bonds they sold were guaranteed by sellers of the bonds (sounds dumb doesn't it), which is what eventually brought down the Wall Street banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros.

     

     

    Finance experts now think that what brought down the Wall Street banks was actually a math error in a Gaussian Copula Function when they bundled those mortgages and sold them as CDO bonds ---

    https://www.wired.com/2009/02/wp-quant/?currentPage=all

     

     

    Bob Jensen's summary of all these happenings is at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm


    IMF Seriously Worried About Pension Fund Failures
    IMF urges regulators to strengthen pension funds amid weak growth, low interest rates ---
    http://www.pionline.com/article/20161005/ONLINE/161009940?AllowView=VDl3UXlaSzVDdkdCblIzQURleUhaRUt2amt3VUErOVpHUT09&utm_campaign=smartbrief&utm_source=linkbypass&utm_medium=affiliate


    CNBC:  50-state public pension unfunded liabilities to hit $1.75 trillion: Moody's ---
    http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/07/us-state-public-pension-unfunded-liabilities-to-hit-175-trillion-moodys.html

    IMF Seriously Worried About Pension Fund Failures
    IMF urges regulators to strengthen pension funds amid weak growth, low interest rates ---
    http://www.pionline.com/article/20161005/ONLINE/161009940?AllowView=VDl3UXlaSzVDdkdCblIzQURleUhaRUt2amt3VUErOVpHUT09&utm_campaign=smartbrief&utm_source=linkbypass&utm_medium=affiliate

     




  •  

    Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

    Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

    Medicare Fraud is Rampant ---
     http://townhall.com/columnists/stevesherman/2016/02/05/medicare-fraud-is-rampant-n2115375?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=


    “You’ve got this crazy (Obamacare) system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Mr. Clinton told voters. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”For years I've been a proponent of a national healthcare plan supplemented with discretionary private insurance much like the system in Germany. Some other national healthcare plans are falling apart
    Bill Clinton (former President of the USA)
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/3/bill-clinton-bashes-obamacare-as-crazy-system-whil/?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb
    Jensen Comment
    All these years I've advocated the German combination of national healthcare with private insurance discretionary supplements.
    I think Bill Clinton is copping my stuff at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
    Read the Introduction

    Also see
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-vs-clinton-on-obamacare-1475796795?mod=djemMER

    Nationalized healthcare is not all it's cracked up to be ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/nationalized-healthcare-is-not-all-its-cracked-up-to-be-2016-9

    . . .

    Back home, though, Canadians seem far more critical of the system. If you follow the internal Canadian debate, you’ll hear the word “crisis.” In fact, many Canadian healthcare economists warn that their system is headed for a major collapse. The aging population has continued to stress an already fragile system. This is the same system that many proponents of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, pointed to as a model.

    Another model of national health care cited by fans of the ACA is the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Like the Canadian system, there seems to be one attitude for export and another for domestic consumption. You may recall the odd tribute to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. The NHS was portrayed as a sea of Mary Poppins bliss. At home, though, Brits had reason to complain. The UK was rated as having the worst patient care and lowest cancer survival rates in the Western World.

    The NHS is in even worse shape now, and complaints are growing louder. According to the committee that represents UK hospitals, the NHS is on the verge of collapse. The former health minister Paul Burstow warned of this outcome two years ago. At the time, increases in the NIH budget were limited to the rate of inflation. But that did not allow for the increased cost of a growing elderly population. The NIH effort to find £30 billion in “efficiency savings” was already putting enormous strains on the system.

    When a healthcare system is overloaded, it’s not just the aged who suffer. A Lancashire man operated on himself when he was put on a long waitlist for a surgery that he badly needed. With waitlists growing, the Royal College of Surgeons reports that financially challenged clinical groups are denying services to patients who are obese or smoke. Often, delayed treatment will increase medical costs in the long run.  

    So it shouldn’t be surprising that the Affordable Care Act, which was inspired by the Canadian and British systems, is in deep trouble. Though I predicted it, it is worrisome when the act’s biggest supporters, including The New York Times, admit the program’s flaws.

    The growing aged population is a huge financial burden

    Obamacare doesn’t deal with the real source of rising healthcare costs: the increase in age-related diseases due to a growing elderly population. It is mathematically impossible to cut societal medical costs while at the same time providing adequate healthcare to a growing and increasingly expensive older population.

    This is not just a problem with health care. Social Security and pension funds are running deficits, which will also worsen. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently said that he has lost the optimism that he has long been known for. The reason is that “we have a 9 percent annual rate of increase in entitlements, which is mandated by law.  It has got nothing to do with the economy. It has got to do with age and health and the like.”

    Greenspan points out that politicians refuse to deal with the “third rail” of entitlements. I agree, but I think there’s a solution. Politicians claim that voters won’t accept delayed retirement. But the evidence shows that most people would like to work longer and save more to pay their own way. Zoya Financial reports that almost two thirds of Americans have to retire earlier than planned, largely due to problems with their own health or a spouse’s.

    Anti-aging biotechnologies are in labs right now that could lengthen health spans and working careers. This would allow us to save our entitlement systems. But economists and politicians still have no clue about the biotechnological progress that has marked the start of the 21st century. This will change because it must… but I hope it happens soon

    Continued in article

    ACA insurance companies are offering over-priced policies with enormous deductibles that discourage patients from having medial treatments except in emergencies. It sounds great in election campaigns to say that nearly all Americans are now insured due to the ACA. It does not sound as great to admit that most of the new insured cannot afford to use the insurance they're now paying for unless they've been added to free health care coverage on Medicaid. But that's not much help for the middle class.

    "Sen. Chuck Schumer: Obamacare Focused 'On The Wrong Problem,' Ignores The Middle Class" by  Avik Roy, Forbes, November 26, 2014 ---
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/11/26/sen-chuck-schumer-obamacare-focused-on-the-wrong-problem-ignores-the-middle-class/

    Despite the enduring unpopularity of Obamacare, Congressional Democrats have up to now stood by their health care law, allowing that “it’s not perfect” but that they are proud of their votes to pass it. That all changed on Tuesday, when the Senate’s third-highest-ranking Democrat—New York’s Chuck Schumer—declared that “we took [the public’s] mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem—health care reform…When Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, ‘The Democrats aren’t paying enough attention to me.’”

    Sen. Schumer made his remarks at the National Press Club in Washington. “Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them…Now, the plight of uninsured Americans and the hardships caused by unfair insurance company practices certainly needed to be addressed,” Schumer maintained. “But it wasn’t the change we were hired to make. Americans were crying out for the end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs—not changes in health care.”

    “This makes sense,” Schumer continued, “considering 85 percent of all Americans got their health care from either the government, Medicare, Medicaid, or their employer. And if health care costs were going up, it really did not affect them. The Affordable Care Act was aimed at the 36 million Americans who were not covered. It has been reported that only a third of the uninsured are even registered to vote…it made no political sense.”

    The response from Obama Democrats was swift. Many, like Obama speechwriters Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau and NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor, took to Twitter. “Shorter Chuck Schumer,” said Vietor, “I wish Obama cared more about helping Democrats than sick people.

    President Obama's End Run on the Separation of Powers:  Attempts to Spend Billions Not Appropriated by the Congress
    The Administration will do anything to rescue its flailing Affordable Care (Obamacare) Act, and nothing so meager as the law will interfere. This damage to the separation of powers, not a health-care bill, will be President Obama’s abiding legacy ---
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-illegal-bailout-for-obamacare-1475276262?mod=djemMER

    Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm 


    ObamaCare’s Meltdown Has Arrived ---
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamacares-meltdown-has-arrived-1475709560?mod=djemMER

    Tennessee is ground zero for ObamaCare’s nationwide implosion. Late last month the state insurance commissioner, Julie Mix McPeak, approved premium increases of up to 62% in a bid to save the exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act. “I would characterize the exchange market in Tennessee as very near collapse,” she said.

    Then last week BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee announced it would leave three of the state’s largest exchange markets—Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville. “We have experienced losses approaching $500 million over the course of three years on ACA plans,” the company said, “which is unsustainable.” As a result, more than 100,000 Tennesseans will be forced to seek out new coverage for 2017.

    BlueCross is only the latest insurer to head for the exits. Community Health Alliance, the insurance co-op established under ObamaCare, is winding down due to financial failure, leaving 30,000 people without coverage. UnitedHealthcare said in April it is departing Tennessee’s exchange after significant losses. That’s another 41,000 people needing new plans.

    All told, more than 60% of our state’s ObamaCare consumers will lose their coverage heading into 2017. When they go in search of a replacement plan, they will confront two unfortunate realities: a dearth of options and skyrocketing costs.

    Seventy-three out of Tennessee’s 95 counties will have only one insurer on the exchange, meaning no meaningful competition whatsoever. In regions where BlueCross BlueShield is pulling out, there will be two remaining major carriers, Cigna CI -0.80 % and Humana. HUM 0.33 % The only large metro area with more options will be Chattanooga.

    Then there are the premiums. State regulators have already approved the highest annual rise in the nation, a weighted average of nearly 56%, according to data at ACASignups.net. The rate increases authorized in late August include an average of 62% for BlueCross BlueShield, 46% for Cigna and 44% for Humana. The latter two companies could ask to revise their rates upward depending on how many former BlueCross consumers they pick up.

    The bottom line is that Tennesseans on ObamaCare must choose from fewer, and increasingly unaffordable, options. Some exchange buyers, those covered by subsidies, will bear only part of this additional cost. For the roughly 30,000 Tennesseans who are ineligible for subsidies, the higher price will come completely out of their own pockets. Not to mention that all ObamaCare consumers face rising deductibles, which aren’t covered by subsidies and can range up to $6,850 for the most “affordable” family plans.

    It’s easy to imagine Commissioner McPeak’s fear of an outright exchange collapse coming true in the near future. The more unaffordable plans become, the angrier consumers will get. BlueCross BlueShield’s $500 million losses won’t disappear when the company leaves the market. Instead, the red ink will flow toward the remaining insurers as they pick up those customers. Cigna and Humana have not publicly said whether their exchange plans have turned a profit.

    Naturally, this chain of events has Tennessee lawmakers clamoring for change. One of the loudest demands—coming from Democrats like Nashville’s U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper—is that the state double down on ObamaCare by expanding Medicaid. But this is a cure worse than the disease, since it would force many Tennesseans into a second-class health-care system while jeopardizing state finances for years to come.

    More important, ObamaCare’s unraveling shows the danger of a one-size-fits-all federal program. What’s happening in Tennessee is only a nationwide harbinger. Every single neighboring state will have less competition on its ObamaCare exchanges next year. The entire state of Alabama will have only one insurer. Almost all are facing double-digit premium increases: in Mississippi a weighted average of 16%; in Kentucky 25%; in Georgia 33%.

     Continued in article


    PwC Study Maligned by Liberals in 2009 is Vindicated by Events of 2016

    From the Left-Leaning Website Called Vox
    "Obamacare was built to fail," by Avik Roy, Vox, October 7, 2016---
    http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/10/7/13191250/obamacare-exchanges-crisis-arrogant-progressives

    . . .

    In October 2009, analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers published a report estimating that by 2016, the Senate Finance Committee bill would increase individual-market health insurance premiums by 47 percent. Today, we would describe that figure as a lowball estimate. In fact, cumulatively, median premiums for "silver plans" have nearly doubled in the ACA’s first four plan years (49 percent in 2014, 7 percent in 2015, 11 percent in 2016, and a projected 10 percent in 2017).

    But in 2009, the ACA’s cheerleaders described it in much different terms.

    "We couldn’t stop intellectual saboteurs from introducing new lies into the debate," wrote Cohn. "But I think we were able to expose those lies just a little more quickly." Cohn and others slammed the PwC report as the work of corrupt health insurance lobbyists seeking to sink reform — as an example of "the insurance industry declaring war." In the Washington Post, Ezra Klein, who went on to found Vox.com, compared the PwC report to lies promulgated by the tobacco and oil industries.

    What was remarkable about all this controversy is that PricewaterhouseCoopers' findings were quite reasonable. The ACA’s insurance market regulations were going to drive up the underlying cost of individually purchased insurance.

    For example, forcing insurers to charge their youngest customers no less than one-third of their oldest customers meant that premiums for young people would double, because on average, 19-year-olds consume one-sixth as much health care as 64-year-olds. Mandating that insurers cover a federally-prescribed suite of health care services, regardless of whether enrollees need coverage for those services, meant that premiums would go up. Requiring that insurers charge the same prices to the healthy and the sick meant that healthy people in particular would pay more.

    By contrast, the law’s individual mandate, forcing consumers to buy that costlier insurance, was going to be phased in over time. As a result, premiums would spike and enrollment would suffer.

    But Obamacare’s cheerleaders, fearing that this information might sink the bill’s fate in Congress, decided to shoot the messenger. They brought in Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist, to assure everyone that "what we know for sure the bill will do is that it will lower the [underlying] cost of buying non-group health insurance" — that is, the cost before any subsidies.

    As a political matter, the aggressive critiques of PwC worked. "Within hours of [the report’s] publication," Cohn recounted, "several blogs, including this one, had published critiques … [they] circulated in Washington and provoked a backlash against the insurers. Wavering Democrats said they were offended by the effort at political sabotage; the Finance Committee went on the pass the bill, as it had originally planned."

    The exchanges punish middle-income Americans

    But as a matter of policy, PwC was right and the cheerleaders and Democratic policymakers were wrong. The ACA’s exchanges were designed poorly, and premiums did become unaffordable for millions. It is true that many people with incomes near the poverty line, whose premiums were nearly fully subsidized by other taxpayers, gained coverage through the law, many through the deeply flawed Medicaid program, whose health outcomes are no better than those of people without health insurance.

    But millions of uninsured, taxpaying Americans don’t qualify for Medicaid or the ACA’s exchange subsidies. Still others — typically those with incomes between 250 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level — qualify for partial subsidies that don’t make up for the fact that ACA exchange insurance costs so much more. As Bill Clinton put it, "You’ve got this crazy system where … people that are out there busting it —sometimes 60 hours a week — wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half." That’s why ACA exchange enrollment has fallen 9 million short of initial estimates.

    The people who implemented the markets were ignorant and arrogant, too

    And Obamacare didn’t suffer only from a flawed blueprint. It was also implemented by people with poor knowledge of how health insurance markets worked.

    Continued in article


    PwC Study Maligned by Liberals in 2009 is Vindicated in 2016

    "Brouhaha erupts over PwC private health insurance report," AccountingWeb, October 21, 2009 ---
    http://www.accountingweb.com/topic/cfo/brouhaha-erupts-over-pwc-private-health-insurance-report

    PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found itself at the center of a controversy over its estimates of cost increases in private health insurance premiums if certain provisions of the heath care reform bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee become law.  PwC was engaged to conduct the study, "Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage," by the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).  Critics have questioned the methodology used by PwC, saying it does not take into consideration some of the cost containment measures in the bill and potential behavioral responses that could affect premium increases. 

    AHIP president and CEO Karen Ignagni told ABC News, "One of the most important things that should be done is for PricewaterhouseCoopers, a world class firm, to speak for itself about methodology."

    PwC defends its analysis and conclusions in a statement provided to AccountingWEB, citing the specific parameters of the study, saying that "America's Health Insurance Plans engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to prepare a report that focused on four components of the Senate Finance Committee proposal:

    * Insurance market reforms and consumer protections that would raise health insurance premiums for individuals and families if the reforms are not coupled with an effective coverage requirement.
    * An excise tax on employer-sponsored high value health plans.
    * Cuts in payment rates in public programs that could increase cost shifting to private sector businesses and consumers.
    * New taxes on health sector entities.

    The study concluded that collectively the four provisions would raise premiums for private health insurance coverage.  As the report itself acknowledges, other provisions that are part of health reform proposals were not included in the PwC analysis."

    By 2019, the study says, after analysis of these four provisions, the cost of single coverage is expected to increase by $1,500 more than it would under the current system and the cost of family coverage is expected to increase by $4,000 more than it would under the current system.  This amounts to an additional 18 percent increase in premiums by 2019. The overall 18 percent increase is a composite of increases by market segment as follows:

    * 49% increase for the non-group (individual) market;
    * 28% increase for small employers (those firms with fewer than 50 employees);
    * 11% increase for large employers with insured coverage; and,
    * 9% increase for self-insured employers.

    The highest increase would be for individuals covered by private insurance.

    In its discussion of a "Strong Workable Coverage Requirement," the study acknowledges it methodology as it does elsewhere in the report.  "The reform packages under consideration have other provisions that we have not included in this analysis.  We have not estimated the impact of the new subsidies on the net insurance cost to households.  Also, if other provisions in health care reform are successful in lowering costs over the long term, those improvements would offset some of the impacts we have estimated."  The analysis of the coverage requirement shows the potential impact on premiums for individuals without a broad coverage requirement."

    PwC says that impacts identified in the study assume payment of tax on high-value plans, cost-shifting of cuts to public programs, and full pass-through of industry taxes. 

    The PwC study also states that it factored in the excise tax but not any anticipated behavioral changes:  "We have estimated the potential impact of the tax on premiums," the study says.  "Although we expect employers to respond to the tax by restructuring their benefits to avoid it, we demonstrate the impact assuming it is applied."

    In an earlier study based on AHIP data, PwC estimated that structural reforms, such as improved wellness and prevention, disease management, value based payment reform, improvements in health information technology, comparative effectiveness, and malpractice reform, could mitigate growth in healthcare costs by between 0.5 and 1.0 percent per year after an initial investment period.  See PricewaterhouseCoopers "A Review of AHIP Savings Estimates" in Appendix to AHIP, "A Shared Responsibility," 2008.

    Bob Jensen's threads on the health care mess are at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm


    "Sen. Chuck Schumer: Obamacare Focused 'On The Wrong Problem,' Ignores The Middle Class" by  Avik Roy, Forbes, November 26, 2014 ---
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/11/26/sen-chuck-schumer-obamacare-focused-on-the-wrong-problem-ignores-the-middle-class/

    Despite the enduring unpopularity of Obamacare, Congressional Democrats have up to now stood by their health care law, allowing that “it’s not perfect” but that they are proud of their votes to pass it. That all changed on Tuesday, when the Senate’s third-highest-ranking Democrat—New York’s Chuck Schumer—declared that “we took [the public’s] mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem—health care reform…When Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, ‘The Democrats aren’t paying enough attention to me.’”

    Sen. Schumer made his remarks at the National Press Club in Washington. “Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them…Now, the plight of uninsured Americans and the hardships caused by unfair insurance company practices certainly needed to be addressed,” Schumer maintained. “But it wasn’t the change we were hired to make. Americans were crying out for the end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs—not changes in health care.”

    “This makes sense,” Schumer continued, “considering 85 percent of all Americans got their health care from either the government, Medicare, Medicaid, or their employer. And if health care costs were going up, it really did not affect them. The Affordable Care Act was aimed at the 36 million Americans who were not covered. It has been reported that only a third of the uninsured are even registered to vote…it made no political sense.”

    The response from Obama Democrats was swift. Many, like Obama speechwriters Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau and NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor, took to Twitter. “Shorter Chuck Schumer,” said Vietor, “I wish Obama cared more about helping Democrats than


    From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on September 29, 2016

    Why the $600 EpiPen costs $69 in Britain
    The EpiPen allergy shot costs less than its leather case in Britain, Bloomberg reports. The price of an EpiPen two-pack has surged to more than $600 in the U.S., sparking a political outcry. While the manufacturer, Mylan NV, says it takes home about $274, in the U.K. a similar pair of injectors costs the state-funded National Health Service $69. The numbers highlight the stark differences in the way drugs are priced in the U.S. and Britain, where the government negotiates with pharmaceutical companies to limit costs.

    Jensen Comment
    Such pricing would never work worldwide because somebody has to pay for Mylan's corporate jets and conferences in Ritz hotels around the world. "Cost Plus" pricing all depends upon what outlays are included in what you call "cost." Accountants are notoriously creative when it comes to "measuring" cost.

    From The Wall Street Journal on September 27, 2016
    "Mylan Clarifies EpiPen's Profit"

    . . .

    Testifying before a congressional committee last week, CEO Heather Bresch said Mylan's profit was $100 for a two-pack of injectors, despite a $608 price in the USA (versus $69 in the U.K.)

    Continued in article

    Jensen Comment
    As usual USA prices include all the allocations of corporate jets, conferences in luxury hotels, factory depreciation, equipment depreciation, R&D, etc. Screwing USA customers and third parties (think Aetna, Blue Cross, Medicare, and Medicaid) is the name of the game in the USA.


    Healthcare Kickbacks
    From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on October 4, 2016

    Tenet agrees to kickbacks fines
    Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it would pay states and the federal government $514 million to settle allegations that its hospitals in Georgia and South Carolina paid kickbacks for obstetric referrals of low-income patients. Under the settlement, which must be approved by a court, two Tenet subsidiaries will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate federal kickback laws, the company said. The agreement settles a criminal investigation and civil litigation.

     


     

     




    Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm 

    Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/